Ain’t We Fancy? Then and Now
The 21st-century status of Thomas Sully (1783-1872), a Philadelphia painter and leading successor to Gilbert Stuart’s Federal portrait style
In Praise of Indie Booksellers
When Karl Kilian opened his bookstore in the summer of 1974, he spent almost all of the next three months on the couch, reading Proust; All of his potential customers had fled Houston’s heat.
$argent and Binge Viewing
IMAGE: John Singer Sargent, Simplon Pass: Reading (detail), c. 1911, opaque and translucent watercolor and wax resist with...
What’s the Matter with Rice? Part 2
IMAGE: A view of James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany (2012) on the Rice University campus. Photo by Ned Dodington...
A Tale of Two Festivals
A woman weaves on a loom while fifty amateur violinists and an accordionist surround her with music. The aftermath of a young man’s suicide unfolds on a large screen through social media.
What’s the Matter with Rice?
IMAGE: Reconstruction of Vladimir Tatlin’s model for the Monument to the Third International, 1967-68, in the courtyard of...
Houston Ballet Soars in a Welch Wonderland
Houston Ballet celebrated its leader's tenth year at the helm by performing three of his works in one evening, a perfect Stanton Welch wonderland and a great way to examine this choreographer's gifts to ballet.
Braque, Magritte and Brown
Are artists in Houston paying attention to Braque and Magritte, given the abundance of their work currently on view in the city?
Novel Music
At this point theatrical adaptations of literary works are old hat in America, disappointing adaptations even more so.
MFAH Moving From “Top-Down” to Participatory Pedagogy
Upon learning that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has hired Caroline Goeser as W.T. and Louise J. Moran Chair of the Department of Learning and Interpretation, and that this department is the new name for the education department, two obvious questions come to mind:
Trouble Puppet Theatre
The Salvage Vanguard Theatre hosted a special double feature on March 1, with Trouble Puppet Theatre’s Crapstall Street Boys and Bootown's The Curio Show.
Looking at Milwaukee, Thinking About San Antonio
At least from my vantage point in Houston, there don't seem to be many tea leaves to read regarding the abrupt departure of David Rubin from the San Antonio Museum of Art, where he's been the curator of contemporary art since 2006.